Blue Jays Hire Martinez

T O R O N T O, Nov. 2 -- Buck Martinez was hired today to be manager ofthe Toronto Blue Jays after spending the last 14 seasons analyzingthe team’s performance on television.

Martinez, who turns 52 on Nov. 7, played for the Blue Jays from1981-86 and has been the team’s color commentator since 1987. He’salso worked for ESPN since 1992.

Martinez is the latest manager to go directly from a team’sbroadcast booth to the dugout. Larry Dierker has won three divisiontitles in four years since being hired in Houston, and Arizonahired analyst Bob Brenly last month to replace Buck Showalter.

Martinez, like Dierker and Brenly, had no managing experiencebefore being hired. Martinez, who almost got the job in 1997 whenTim Johnson was hired, also has no coaching experience.

“Obviously Buck is familiar to this team, and that is a bigthing,” catcher Darrin Fletcher said Wednesday.

Former Big League Catcher

Toronto general manager Gord Ash approached Martinez about thejob before Jim Fregosi was fired after the season.

Oakland bench coach Ken Macha was the other finalist. The BlueJays also interviewed former Blue Jays players Ernie Whitt andWillie Upshaw, Milwaukee bench coach Jerry Royster and formerKansas City Royals manager Hal McRae.

As a former catcher, Martinez will no doubt also be able to helpthe development of young Blue Jays pitchers like Chris Carpenter,Kelvim Escobar and Roy Halladay.

Martinez takes over a team that went 83-79, finishing third inthe AL East. But attendance was 1,819,886, the lowest since 1982.

A native of Redding, Calif., Martinez was a career .225 hitterwith 58 homers in 1,049 major league games.

“I was a player who had to maximize my time,” Martinez saidrecently. “I had to study other players, I had to really do myhomework on the pitching staff. I had to really work hard at it.”

Martinez, who also played with Kansas City and Milwaukee, hadhit best season in 1984, setting career highs in games (102) andRBIs (37). But he broke a leg the following season during ahome-plate collision with Milwaukee’s Phil Bradley.